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Blackblade 21.0 - Raito Reborn
Knowing that they had little time, everyone began preparing in their own ways. Ragoom, under instruction from Raito, used divination magics to ask questions of Liartia's heavenly servants. Broken Tusk constructed a variety of magical garments. Ridley, after cutting a deal with Raito, agreed to scout out Miyagi Castle, while Yomiel made potions to be used. Two days before they were warned to arrive by, the group left the drakes and Kirsikka in the care of Ridley and teleported to Miyagi City, wrapped up in nondetection spells. Traveler was disguised using a combination of Anthropomorphic Animal and Reduce Person, though he still maintained his elephantine appearance. Reaching the castle gate, the group teleported onto the roof of the main building; Yomiel, becoming invisible, split away from the group, leaving Caelan wearing a monocle that allowed the Leshrved to keep watch over their activities. The others opened a nearby window and clambered in before anyone could spot them. Using their Hats of Disguise, they took the guise of guards; a cursory use of Detect Magic suggested that Osamu was on the floor above them. While trying to sneak out, Ragoom managed to trip and break through the door. Luckily, there appeared to be no one nearby who heard, so the group hid the wreckage and moved on. Working off of Ridley's intel, they made their way through the eerily quiet house, eventually finding their way to the kitchen, where they demanded food of the two kitchen workers there. Passing out the back door of the kitchen, they found a pantry room with a locked trap door, marked with a Do-Not-Open sign. Ignoring the signage entirely, they picked the lock, revealing a dark cold cellar; the steps that should have led down appeared to have been removed. Undeterred, Ragoom cast Light upon a potato and threw it through the opening. Seeing nothing, he jumped down after it. As he looked around the cellar, he saw that it had been emptied, and in place of shelves or boxes, he found five man-sized, rust-coloured insects. Immediately, they fell upon him and tried to consume his metallic armour and weapon. Acting quickly, the others managed to pull him back out before they could destroy anything, though the insects mewled at the opening, trying to reach the delicious metal the adventurer's possessed. Broken Tusk, not carrying anything metal at all, jumped down with Traveler. They investigated the room, and were completely ignored by the rust monsters; they found a singular door that had apparently been magically sealed with a thin layer of stone. Strange noises eminated from beyond: wet, squelching sounds of indeterminate origin. Punching the insects soundly and sending them scattering to the corners of the room, Broken Tusk hopped back up to report. The rest of the group, after debating, sacrificed a suit of armour made of adamantine to hold the rust monsters' attention. They fell upon it with a fury, and began to consume the rare, dense metal, while everyone else jumped down and turned their attentions towards the door. With little difficulty, they shattered the stone on both sides of the door and made an opening, where they were met by two huge black slime monsters. Fighting as best they could in the tight corridors, Broken Tusk and Traveler barged into the slime's room to fight head-on, while the others attacked from the hallway. Unfortunately, near the end of the battle, Vol's Rod of Pacci created a stone wall, sealing the druid in the room with the slimes. Everyone began to hammer away at the stone while Broken Tusk eventually destroyed the slimes, dissolving them into noncohesive piles of viscous fluid on the floor. He found a second sealed door in the room, and began to open it as well. When all of the rocky barriers had been removed, the group opened the new door and walked inside. They found a small room that had been converted into a bedroom of sorts, with simple furniture and a set of magical implements that meant that someone could live in the room without having to leave. The room's most prominent feature was a large, glowing red circle, all too familiar in its design. A cursory search around the room revealed a young boy, barely 6, hiding scared under the bed, guarded by a strange, small creature that appeared to be a cross between a small alligator and a snake. The reptilian creature growled at anyone who stuck their face under the bed. Eventually, they managed to coax the boy out and calm him down; he explained that he was Susumo Okabe, the son of the heir to the late emperor, the little creature was his friend Snicker, and that he had drawn the circle. Assuming that he was the keystone that would trigger the circle's activation, the group convinced him that they would keep him safe and take him home, to which he was all too eager to agree. Caelan carried the young boy, and his willful little companion Snicker followed after, not deigning to be picked up. The Northman tried to argue for the immediate removal of the child, but Raito disagreed, claiming that the safest place was with them. Everyone eventually agreed with Raito, and they made their way back up into the pantry room, ignoring the rust monsters as they feasted on the adamantine. Sneaking out a back entrance, the group stealthily made their way to an adjacent building that they knew to be the residence of the Wakahisas, Masumi and her two daughters. They made their way into the dark house and began looking for a magically-guarded entrance to a basement that Ridley had mentioned. It did not take them long to find it by using Detect Magic. They decided then that, rather than try and disarm or deactivate the traps, they walked into an adjacent room and began to rip up the floor. After nearly an hour of tearing at the boards, they had managed to create an opening that allowed them to fall down to the next area: a hallway behind the door. They were now faced with a circular staircase carved into the foundation that curved downward, covered with increasingly deadly traps. Broken Tusk, turning himself into an earth elemental, shifted through the earth column at the center of the stairs, descending until he hit a layer of lead that appeared to form the roof of a room. Coming out, he found himself at a door at the bottom of the stairs. Immune to the effects of the poisonous traps at the bottom, he began to trip the traps to make a path for the others. Meanwhile, Vol managed to spot a well-hidden switch; pulling it made a tunnel form in the central column, leading straight down. Everyone entered and found a second switch, causing a tunnel to appear directly beneath them, sending all but Caelan, wearing a Ring of Featherfall, careening downwards. They found this to be a repeating pattern, and eventually they made their way to the bottom, reaching the door to the lead-walled room. Behind the unlocked door was a large room, mostly dominated by a huge pentagram in the same style as the circles they had seen so many times before. Along the far wall, however, was a short table, upon which lay five swords, two of which were an oily black colour. In front of the table was Masumi, kneeling and in some sort of trance. A hushed argument ensued as to what to do; Caelan took Vol and Susumo and left the room while Raito strode forward and attempted to cut down the woman. Just as he lifted his sword, she noticed his presence and dodged, taking a hit from the sword but not enough to kill her outright. Shocked, she teleported away almost instantly. Ragoom made to take the swords, but Raito stopped him, telling him that it was a terribly bad idea. Instead, he walked out to the others. They began to panic and prepared to teleport away themselves. At that juncture, Raito turned to Caelan, apologized, and with a smooth gesture, reached out and delivered a fatal electric shock to Susumo. Immediately, Snicker disappeared, and the pentagram in the room behind them flashed an evil red as a portal opened at its center. Without hesitation, Raito ran headlong into the room and fled through the portal, which closed behind him. The others stood shell-shocked, and remained as such when Osamu returned, accompanied by Masumi and Mako. Masumi, after dropping off Mako, collected the swords and fled again; Osamu demanded an explanation, which the remaining people readily gave. Osamu explained that Raito had gone to Hell, and would undoubtedly return momentarily with greater power; Ragoom, Broken Tusk and Caelan were all too willing to lend their aid in Raito's destruction. Osamu instructed Vol to flee immediately after casting Dimensional Anchor on Raito, and appeared to have an additional telepathic conversation with him in the tense few moments that passed. Obviously conflicted and afraid, Vol agreed. Everyone took up battle stances around the pentagram, and waited. They did not have to wait long: barely five minutes passed before the portal opened again as Raito, flanked by three gaunt, evil-looking devil minions, strode into the room. Raito's appearance had changed notably: his skin and eyes had taken on a red colour, a pair of curved ram horns sprouted from his head, and he was wearing stunningly beautiful grey-and-gold robes. There was no talking as everyone immediately lunged into battle. Vol cast Dimensional Anchor on Raito, preventing him from using any of his teleporting abilities, then fled. Traveler, in the form of an elephant-man, and Broken Tusk, in the form of a mastodon, both lay into the demonic minions, joined by Caelan and Mako. Raito, revealing a pair of insectoid wings hidden in the folds of his robes, took flight; he swung at Caelan, then began to move towards the door, using his spells to pass by those who blocked it. As he started to make his exit, Broken Tusk used the spell that he had used to foil Mako on their first meeting. Raito was stricken, stopped in his tracks, and dropped Takuetsu on the floor. Osamu saw his opportunity, took up Raito's sword, and teleported away himself. Raito maintained his presence of mind enough to continue his escape, and so flew up the central shaft, slicing through the rope the group had left for themselves as he passed. The others finished off the remaining devils; Ragoom used a spell that hit Mako as hard as the devils, nearly causing the swordsman to turn on the cleric, but he was distracted by the end of combat and the fact that "the elephant was now a man and the man was now an elephant". Osamu returned within the minute to find that the foe had fled. He explained the function of the circles: a Hellish ritual that would grant a wish from Yoru, for the price of five sacrifices made of five people, all of different races and casting capabilities. He had been using this ritual for the purpose of removing the Black Blades from Yeto for good: seven evil swords possessed of single-minded souls who had and would continue to purge Yeto into war for their own selfish aims for eternity. Now he had all seven swords, but they raged and furied against Masumi, who had to now expend her power continually to keep them from using their power to escape; Osamu now had a week at best to complete the ritual again, and take all seven swords to Hell, before Masumi collapsed. He implored the group to convince Vol of the importance of sacrificing himself for the greater good. Category:Banishment of the Blackblades